10 Faves of 2013: The Definitive List (cough cough)

Okay, here we are at the last 7 hours of 2103, and I feel relatively good that I will see or hear nothing else in those hours that will hit my top 10 list. However, were I to have written this list even two weeks earlier, two picks would not have been on. So this was one time where procrastinating worked for me. Hooray!

Anyway, I have to say that overall, 2013 was kind of a meh year in terms of books, movies, tv and pop culture that rocked my world. But I did come up with 10 things that I thought were really great. In no particular order, here they are:

10. Help for the Haunted, by John Searles. This was a fabulously creepy book that kept me wondering right up to the final pages. Beautiful character portraits of a likable but deeply dysfunctional family.

HBO’s Getting On

9. Getting On. This HBO series about work in a geriatric rehab wing of a hospital perfectly balanced outlandish situations and characters with heart-wrenching moments of humanity.

8. John Oliver on The Daily Show. Now, I love me some Jon Stewart, so when he took off this summer to go be all director-y, I was a little nervous about how The Daily Show would hold up. I need not have worried. John Oliver was so perfectly English and hilarious in the role of host that I was almost disappointed when the other Jon returned. And Oliver’s final show had tears flowing from Oliver and Stewart, and me as well.

7. Orange is the New Black. This Netflix show was so absorbing and such good storytelling of a diverse set of women that it staggered me. I couldn’t even hate Pennsatucky because she became such a three-dimensional character.

6. Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes. This novel was ridiculously funny and sad all at the same time. One of the best protagonists I’ve read in a book in eons.

5. Game of Thrones, season 3. Scenes from this season just burn themselves into my head. Seriously, Daenerys uttering “Dracarys” after she tells the slaver that dragons are not slaves? Fist-pumping awesome! The Red Wedding? Defies description.

4. Patrick Stewart – 2013 saw Patrick Stewart emerge as my favorite internet persona. From his crazy funny Instagram friendship with Ian McKellan to his short sting as correspondent on The Daily Show to his tutorial on how to moo like a cow, he did it all this year with class and panache.

3. Lucius – My husband introduced me to this band, who sound like the love child of Amy Winehouse and Kate Bush. The songs from their album Wildewoman are utterly addicting.

2. The Returned. This French series that aired on Sundance was unlike anything I’ve seen. This series about a group of undead that show up in a French town left more questions unanswered than answered, but kept such a consistent still but creepy tone that I couldn’t stop watching. And their scene cuts! “It wasn’t an accident.” End scene. WHAT?????

1. Her. This Spike Jonz movie was beautiful, funny and moving. I had MAJOR reservations about whether I would like this. The conceit of a man falling in love with his operating system could have gone 100 ways of wrong. But it was handled just right.